Surfgate style tabs on my 24v or not. Thoughts?!

[duffymahoney]

So I have been wrestling with the idea of putting a surfgate type system on my boat or not. Long lenco trim tabs would be a super easy install. Or volvo penta QL tabs, but from my measurements I won't be able to fit them. Too bad since they would be easier.

I have a few reasons for doing this. First would be not having to weight the boat extreme on a single side. The second is overall safety. The third is ease of the shape of the wave. I have been talking to some pro's. I won't name them since some are sponsored by boat companies. But the overall thought is surfgate works and the wave is equal or better then a heavily weighted on surf side. They have played with weight and they always come back to evenly weighted boat. On the malibu they are running lots of extra weight and the wave is long and tall and powerful. They are getting some wash but they thing that is from the power wedge.

My idea is to fill up all of my ballast, put lead in the bow and see if the boat will even go 12mph or not. I have no clue if it will or not.


Here is my current setup.

Dual rear customs 1850# (honestly this could be anywhere from 1500-1900) so 3000-3800 I have no real way of knowing without a hose and a giant scale.

Dual bow 450# (lets guess 250-350 each) 500-700. Plus 500 in lead.

So if I fill everything it's between 3500 (no lead)-4000 with lead on a low side and 5000 on a high side.

I have no clue if the boat will even move with that much weight. I normally surf with 1500-1900 plus 200 lead surf side plus bow full 500-700 plus 300 in lead. So 2500-3100 or so. If we have a small crew I even put another 450 on the seat. The boat holds speed great with my 5 blade! I could always change my customs out for smaller sacs. Say something in the 1000-1200 range. Any thoughts? Anyone spend some time playing with idea? Maybe i'm just kicking tires but my brain is running with the idea.

[Ruger761]

Ive been kicking around the idea of maknig a test gate just to see what it would do on an older wide hull, so looking at some options. It would be a lot easier to drive leveled out plus I can run lower than 1/2 tank of fuel with out sucking air. Here is a nice link I found with a lot of prototypes people have tried and one nice teak gate.

http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/...f-gate-thread/

Ya ya I know its a bu site.

[duffymahoney]

That teak gate is pretty sweet looking. I was thinking lenco ram with some of that white plastic stuff with a simple hinge. It would be super easy install.

[Ruger761]

He did a very nice job on it. I think it would be pretty easy to make one and install it. Im going to try some simple swim deck ones first to see what it would do before going too far with it once I get a little more free time. Only thing most say is they make turning at slow speeds terrible when deployed.

[NICKYPOO]

The teakgate set up is pretty sweet. Pretty hard to to deny the results as well.

What I found with my wave last year was that it was best when the boat maintained a close to normal attitude. I think thats becoming a key ingredient to the modern surfwake. Obviously listing the boat can produce a highly effective wave but, I think you, like a lot of us, are tired of that set up. It's entirely possible to weight both sides and have a great wave that is much easier to deal with. The question is, who is going to figure out how to get both sides good at the same time. Perhaps a three phase surfgate is in order. Left, right and center. Somewhere in that set up, it might be possible. That's the direction you should go, duff.

[NICKYPOO]

...and no, not like taps. More like an actuating VX with surfgates.

Think about it. Two clean faces with a clean 6" wide spine. Wake to wake 3s, backside Method transfers, 50/50s. Only a matter of time before someone does a backroll over the spine.

[Ruger761]

I think your on to something there!

[loudelectronics]

Have you ever surfed a malibu before? They keep talking a big wake but i cant get it. My neighbours on each side of me bought new bu's last year. They are 23', I think LSV or whatever they are called. Beautiful boats, great wakeboard wake but the surf wake is awful. This is compared to my 24V but you would think a boat of that size would be able to move some water. The wake is long, but does not have any push. It looks tall but once on it it is very shallow slope. You can only surf right off the platform. We have tried every sac i have to get them to make a wake but it is just not there. It also gets washy very easily. Hard to tune that out. Need to have the wedge at just the right deployment.

I think the surfgate is a great concept. It just needs to be used on a better hull design. Take a surfgate with CVX on a tige and you would have a pretty sweet setup.

my setup on my 24 V is the following:
Sufside rear locker has two 1100lb sacs. Bottom one is filled and top one gets 3/4 full
Surfside under seat gets a 450 and another 450 goes on the seat.
Front locker get a full 1100lbs sac

Rear opposite locker gets 550 lbs and a person.

Rub rail is not touching water and it moves a pile of water.

[Ruger761]

I don't think there will ever be a replacement for ballast, it's just fining the right combination of a wake shaper which the CXV and surf gate or surf tabs all are. And making it easy to use and retro fit will be the key. Find that out and we might be some rich guys then

[duffymahoney]

Two surfers wouldn't work for me. Since riders would never fall at the same time. You would end up surfing far away from the first person and it would be dangerous.

I have never surfed a sac'd out BU. But these are pros telling me. Not your average guys. And I trust their inputs. My wave is awesome- amazing. Just playing around a bit with designs and concepts. My ballast drains and fills in around 3 minutes so switching sides quickly really isn't a goal. Bigger more powerful wave is the goal. Simple answer is more weight= more push and more power. If you can form the wave. That's the idea I am going with.

[Ruger761]

Be sure to post up your idea pics and results. I think it's going to work pretty good.

Just thinking. Has anyone ever tried a shaped TAPs plate? I don't know if it would be big enough to do anything a all but just a thinking about different ideas.

[Stingreye]

Two surfers wouldn't work for me. Since riders would never fall at the same time. You would end up surfing far away from the first person and it would be dangerous.

I have never surfed a sac'd out BU. But these are pros telling me. Not your average guys. And I trust their inputs. My wave is awesome- amazing. Just playing around a bit with designs and concepts. My ballast drains and fills in around 3 minutes so switching sides quickly really isn't a goal. Bigger more powerful wave is the goal. Simple answer is more weight= more push and more power. If you can form the wave. That's the idea I am going with.

I wonder if you were to use some of your wave flap rubber to extend the surf tab further since it will give some flex and allow for a smooth longer delayed convergence.

[NICKYPOO]

Two surfers wouldn't work for me. Since riders would never fall at the same time. You would end up surfing far away from the first person and it would be dangerous.

Who said anything about two surfers?

[loudelectronics]

We can ride 3 surfers on our wake on the 24v. 2 Easily. The third takes a skilled rider.

Keep in mind pro's are paid, amateurs are not. I know a few pros of a few different sports, one thing they know is how to perform, the rest blows my mind what they don't know cause they really don't need to or else they are told to cause they have too. So one thing I have learned is ask a pro for advice on how to improve your performance and ask for coaching. Dont ask which equipment is best cause you are going to get what you want to hear or a biased answer cause they are paid to do so. Not always the case as there are some pros that are technically savvy and not drinking the kool-aid.

Also never ask a pro how to take care of a boat, best practices and such... They just dont know...

[shawndoggy]

Duffy I say go for it just because I like to live vicariously through your spirit of experimentation!

I've heard of those volvo penta trim tabs, but has anyone actually implemented them for a surfgate style system? That sure looks like a clean way to do it from a DIY perspective. How did you determine that they won't work for you??